Book salutes role of Roy E. Disney

Walt Disney played a role in millions of childhoods. But who could have said that Uncle Walt sat on the edge of their bed and told a story about a wooden puppet who became a real boy?

That would have been Roy E. Disney, actual nephew of Walt, who grew up to be an executive at Walt Disney Co.

The story involving a preproduction "Pinocchio" is one of the tales in "Remembering Roy E. Disney: Memories and Photos of a Storied Life," written by colleague Dave Bossert.

The book is meant to be a celebration of the man, said Bossert, producer, creative director and head of special projects at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He will sign copies of his book at Downtown Disney's Art of Disney store from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday.

"I never set out to write a biography," he said. "What I set out to do was to write some personal stories and also include stories from other colleagues, along with a bunch of photos and pictures that people have never seen before."

The photographs stray from the usual studio-publicity fare and include behind-the-scenes looks at early Disney history.

"He talked fondly about his dad [Roy O. Disney], about his uncle, about the family enterprise, about him growing up at the studio," Bossert recalled. "After school and during summer break, the studio was his playground."

"It was really a completion of his uncle's vision of this ever-evolving movie," Bossert said. "It would constantly be changing and pieces would be removed and new pieces will be put in, and every time it would go into theaters it would have a different makeup to it."

Roy E. Disney, who died in 2009, was also a fan of Disney's Animal Kingdom, Bossert said.

"That was his favorite park. He was largely responsible for pushing that forward and getting that park built," he said. "Early in his career he was involved with the True-Life Adventure nature films, and he was a supporter of various conservation funds. … He really loved nature."

On the business side, Roy E. Disney was involved in two campaigns to oust the chairman of the board as well as the installation of Michael Eisner as CEO in 1984, Bossert's book says.

"At the time, had he not done anything, the company could have very well been taken over by financiers and just parts of it sold off, which is what the plan was," Bossert said. "There were some people swimming around the company."

Roy E. Disney "understood that the company could be great, it just needed a little bit of a shake-up," he said. "It needed some new management to come in. And if he got the right people in there it would sort of awake that sleeping giant … which is what happened, in hindsight."

At the signing, Bossert will be joined by Roy P. Disney — son of Roy E. — who wrote the forward of Bossert's book.